Massive thanks to those that made it down to the first ever FFUK end of season party on Saturday. Shame the England result didn’t go our way but that was the only low-point of an otherwise great evening. See below for photo of all those in attendance.
From Left to Right – Rob Harding, Rich Harrison, Pete Cronin, Chris Galloway, James Sheridan, Paul Baker, Andy Faulkner, Mark Turnbull, Lester Deeble & Chris Ward
Pete and I arrived at the White Bear in our England shirts at 5pm for the start of the Wales vs Slovakia game. We even had our own smoking area. It was perfect. The match served as a nice warm up to the main event and as we all gathered the game picked up pace and it ended up being very entertaining. With Wales coming out on top much to all of our surprise and now in pole position in the group.
As the first game ended we ordered poppadoms. Wonderful stuff. All pubs should serve Poppadoms with dips, it really is the best accompaniment to pints of beer! As the crisp beige discs were devoured talk turned to the season and we discussed a few highlights/lowlights and our hopes for next time round. Lester reminded us repeatedly that he had never played the game before this season. Beginners luck or have we got a hustler on our hands? Then once everyone arrived we got the curry orders in so we would be all done in time for the 8pm kick off.
After a very satisfactory curry we had 15 mins until kick off. Paul proceeded to stand up and unbeknownst to Pete & I presented us both with Chelsea shirts with our names and final league positions on the back. A lovely gesture that almost had Pete in tears. Big thanks to everyone that contributed to that. James Page-Chatton also very generously provided money for a round of drinks so we got the shots in for everyone. Thanks to all of you – we really appreciate this and didn’t expect it at all! For some reason Pete felt the need to grope me as the picture was taken.
Pete also unveiled our surprise, a brand new shiny engraved trophy for the league winner to display proudly in their cabinet for the whole of next season before handing it onto the next winner. Congratulations Paul, once again, for your achievements this season.
The less said about the England result the better. The game wasn’t actually too bad and the Dier goal was a great moment as the game climaxed. Particularly for Paul Baker who captained the defender – how does he do it? The drinks were in full flow by this point in the game. Shots were coming thick and fast. Nothing could stop us now. Then the Russian goal. Disaster. So we stepped up the drinking as only the English know how to do. However, instead of fighting, we occupied ourselves with drinking games. I got the rough end of a couple of games early on before I realised the need to concentrate. Pete didn’t. Pete lost the drinking games. All of them. Spectacularly. The photo below depicts this perfectly, I think Pete had spilt his shot so, of course, had to lick it up from the table!
What a night! What a season! The Euros are now in full swing. We have 26 in our FFUK mini-league and there’s plenty of discussion in the WhatsApp group. Payet’s goal lit up the tournament and the games have been good so far but we’ve only just scratched the surface, there are so many live games on in the next couple of weeks its a football lovers paradise. Plenty of players on show will be vying for our attentions next season so a good opportunity for a bit of pre-season scouting. Would you believe that the Premier League fixtures are released this Wednesday, it wont be that long until FPL player prices come out and what about the chips next season?
FFUK 